Take Me Out to the ... Beer Fest! Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival On Deck

Here it is the third week in January, and Beer Fest Season in Florida is off and running! There already have been several beerfest and beer release events in South Florida (see events on this site), and this week is South Florida Beer Week, featuring tastings and events from Treasure Coast to Dade County. 

On deck this weekend is the 11th Annual Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival. About 3000 lucky craft beer fans will convene at the grounds of Roger Dean Stadium in the Abacoa Town Center of Jupiter between 1-5pm to sample craft beers from around the state and beyond, meet brewers, dance, and in general, have one rockin' time. Take a look at my 2016 recap story, and you'll see why this fest is a home run.






Online tickets are sold out (happens every year), but if you waited too long and didn't score yours, well, you haven't struck out -- there will be 1200 tickets available at the gate on fest day (cash only). And, they'll go fast -- you could even ask these guys who arrived early last year for their chance at tickets on fest day:

They started lining up pre-11am in 2016.
View from my hotel room across the street.

It's actually a weekend of beer events, as the celebrated Field of Beers beer and food pairing event leads things off for the 9th year on Friday night inside the Stadium. Field of Beers was voted the fourth best fest in the nation last year in the USA Today 10 Best Readers' Choice poll. The event features beers from 18 breweries alongside culinary creations by top Palm Beach chefs. Tickets to the gastro event always sell out fast, and according to Fest Organizer Fran Andrewlevich, tickets sold out in about 14 minutes this time around. 

On Saturday afternoon, the Craftoberfest party also takes place at the Abacoa Amphitheater, across the street from the main beer fest. It's a family-friendly event with German music and food, along with a beer tent. Admission to Craftoberfest is free. 

Nothin' like a day at the ball park!
2016 Jupiter Craft Brewers Fest

Organizer Fran Andrewlevich (co-owner of Tequesta Brewing and Twisted Trunk Brewing, along with brewery-in-planning Steam Horse Brewing) and Co-Organizer Jaime Meholic have assembled over 50 local, regional and and national brewers to pour over 175 different beers much to the delight of the craft beer enthusiast crowd. Last year, I noticed the addition of a number of tables and extra seating in the middle of the fest venue, with more on tap for this year, says Fran. It's just one of the things that the fest "keeps fine tuning every year" to make it a more enjoyable experience. I was lucky enough to catch up with Fran and learned about his 11 years as the organizer of this Fest, including a now-humorous flashback at the first year, when the Fest was held at the Amphitheater, and over 1300 people showed up on fest day after only a small number of advance tickets were sold. 

Hey, how about that? Beer at
the Tequesta/Twisted Trunk table last year!

This Fest is one of only a handful that doesn't offer a VIP entry for an extra hour at an increased price. That's by design, says Fran, as the Fest "keeps it simple" and just wants everyone "to forget about the world for a few hours" and "have a great time."  Yeah, I think they've accomplished that from what I've seen!

A portion of the proceeds from the Fest goes to support two charitable organizations that help those with autism, the Autism Project of Palm Beach County and Surfers Healing. Once again, the Fest will offer the Silent Disco (always interesting to say the least, especially after a few of those beers). This year, there's also live music by local favorite artists Jeff Margel and Friends and Hot Pink.

Do you hear what I hear? Probably not.
At the Silent Disco.

I'll leave this off as I began last year's recap post .... Here's a photo of Roger Dean Stadium that I captured last Sunday as I left South Florida after having attended Trench Day (there's a story for that, too) and headed back north. It's the calm before Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival. I can't wait to see it again this weekend!

The grounds of Roger Dean Stadium, January 22, 2017 ...
 all is calm ....

Roger Dean Stadium is the spring training home of the Major League Baseball Florida Marlins and St.Louis Cardinals. It sits in the Abacoa development of Jupiter and is located at 4751 Main St. And, if you play golf, the Abacoa Golf Club is an awesome track!

If you missed the batting order and didn't get your tickets for Jupiter Craft Brewers Fest when they went on sale in mid-December, you just might want to get this one in your lineup for 2018 ahead of time.

Special thanks to Fran and Jaime for some insider info on the Fest! 

I'm looking forward to another awesome Jupiter Craft Brewers Fest on Saturday! I'll be wandering around the grounds looking for photo and video ops (I almost typed "oops," but that could be the way it turns out, you never know). And, yeah, I'll be on the lookout for at least a few brewers to snap up a few photos. Happy Beerfest Season, Florida! By the way, keep checking the "BeerSPHERE" page of brewnymph.com for beerfests and special events, with links, ticket info and some insights from yours truly!

Til next time,
Cheers!

Linda 




Linda Johnson, Certified Cicerone®

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